Planet and PEOPLE

The Scottish Government is launching a consultation on a new initiative called Community Wealth Building (inevitably shortened to CWB). According to the website ( https://consult.gov.scot/economic-development/community-wealth-building-consultation/ ),

“CWB is an approach designed to tackle long-standing economic challenges and transform Scotland’s local and regional economies by considering the ways in which the public sector, in partnership with the private, third and community sectors, can ensure more wealth is generated, circulated and retained in communities and localities.

In short, CWB is focused on growing the influence communities have on the economy and ensuring communities receive more of the benefits from the wealth they help to generate.”

It’s a fine aspiration, but the devil is in the detail. It is extremely vague however about what this really means in practice. The current policies of the Scottish government also seem to lead in an opposite direction.

The proposed legislation would apparently have three aspects:

• ‘working within and developing procurement practices to support local economies, including Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) and micro- businesses, and improved access to training and labour markets for disadvantaged communities and individuals.
• ‘encouraging public kitchens, including school canteens, to source more food produced by local businesses and organic producers.
• ‘where possible, to base public sector capital and revenue funding decisions on targeted social, economic and environmental outcomes’

The specific ‘outcomes’ are not (apparently) defined. The word ‘targeted’ suggests that these will be shot at from the centre rather than derived from communities themselves. The question of how and by whom a ‘disadvantaged’ community is identified, is also not clear.

The problem with such vagueness is that we have all been subjected to such a barrage of cynical ‘behavioural psychology’ propaganda over the last few years that scepticism is hard to avoid.   Experience shows that projects given positive sounding titles like this too often turn out to be the exact opposite in practice.   The World Economic Forum (WEF: an exclusive, unelected and unaccountable group of oligarchs, dedicated to making the world a ‘better’ place for themselves, at our expense ) announced its ‘Great Reset’ of the world’s economy in 2020. This which is supposed to save the planet with the promise that “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” ( presumably they’ll own everything and be miserable?  What philanthropy!)   Actually the announcement was made by Prince (now ‘King’) Charles, so how does community wealth building relate to this new feudalism?

A number of current Scottish Government policies seem to be derived directly from the WEF – smart cities, and the 30:30 agenda, for example. Both of these seem to do nothing to build community wealth and communities here were not consulted about these. If the Scottish Government is really changing direction, will it start by distancing itself from the WEF?  

The Scottish Government’s track record in listening to and dealing with the rural communities of the highlands and islands especially is not encouraging. For many years the communities of the islands have complained about the nature ‘protection’ designations that destroy the communities. More and more people in the highlands and islands are now opposed to environmental designations on principle ( https://www.stornowaygazette.co.uk/business/environmental-strictures-are-hurting-the-islands-3594404). It has also centralised services in the central belt, destroying local jobs and the effectiveness of the service provided too. It is useless to ring 999 and discover that the operator as no idea at all where you are or how to reach you.

Scottish Planning Policy is based around ‘City Regions’. Where I live is designated a ‘remote rural’ area – are communities here too poor, too wee, too stupid to matter? It also actually requires local planning authorities to ignore all matters of public and environmental health and safety in approving 5G and related infrastructure.

So if this initiative is to have any credibility at all, the Scottish Government needs to be very clear about what it means, and how serious it really is about this. It must address the realities and move beyond warm vagueness.

– What is ‘community’?  Does it include the rural communities of Wester Ross that seem to be being defunded and run down by the Scottish Government? Are we perhaps just too ‘remote rural’, too wee, too poor, to stupid to count?  Who gets to define the communities whose wealth will be enhanced?

– What is ‘wealth’?  How about starting there?   Presumably ‘wealth’ means something we desire, so what do we actually want?    Community wealth building simply cannot just be another attempt to greenwash globalist corporate capitalism and the dehumanising totalitarianism and corruption it brings with it.  We are it seems bought and sold for (mainly) US gold by people with the ‘ethics’ of organised crime. How will community wealth be saved from disappearing into the pockets of oligarchs?

– What is meant by ‘building’?  How is wealth to be built?   Is this about building our ‘wealth’ at the expense of others?   Planetary resources are finite.   Surely it has to start with sustainable wealth creation, using local, renewable resources and creating zero ‘waste’?   

A future for planet and people is perfectly possible if  we want it. However reality has to be faced. What we need is some fresh, radical thinking.  

(3)   The three aspects of the proposed legislation (see above) seem pretty limited. So here are some specific, practical ideas for the Scottish Government to consider adding.  What do you think?

• Surely community wealth building must start with producing and sharing some wealth, and ending the destructive, extractive economy that is driving population and biodiversity decline.  That can only be done by turning the globalist, centralised, urban, de-humanising economy on its head.  People and planet are perfectly capable of working together for the common good, everywhere.  We need to stop the urban-centric thinking that is sucking the life and wealth out of rural areas while separating people from nature and making them dependent on vast centralised, globalised (and frankly fascist)  infrastructures.   
• Recognising the planet and its people as interdependent means recognising that we cannot control and possess the planet or each other.  We can only work together or the overall good.  Disastrous polarisations include “rural’ and ‘urban’; ‘wild’ and ’tame’, ‘right- and left- wing’, divisions of people into classes, races, and so on. An ecosystem – and human society is a subset of the wider ecosystem – simply does not work by centralised control, especially when – as at present – it is based on fear.   We live in a culture of bullying and coercion. However the  most ruthless and reckless in their desire to dominate and control are not the ‘fittest’ to survive.   It is nonsense to go on pretending that humans have ‘dominion’ over nature.   What are we ‘saving the planet’ from, if not ourselves?  Perhaps it’s not really the planet we are trying to save, it’s our own selfishness.   Should we be asking the planet to save us? 
• In practical terms surely this must mean rejecting dependence on globalism and international oligarchs who in reality care for nothing but their own unlimited craving for power and wealth.  

More specifically, I hope ‘community wealth building’ will promote:  

• Putting people and planet first surely means making that commitment publicly, reinstating the precautionary principle and the commitment to serving the sovereign people of Scotland before private profit or international ‘investors’.  We need every public servant to make that commitment.  Climate change cannot be just another excuse for more totalitarianism and violence, greenwashing the pursuit of power and wealth that is really killing us all.   A commitment to communities must also be a commitment to consult communities and act in their interest, not impose central ‘targets’. I suggest that we refuse to vote for any politician who will not make that commitment and be held to it.
• Investment in developing localised, sustainable, self reliant, decentralised, circular economies to reduce dependence on international ‘investors’ who see us and the planet as mere resources for their private greed.  We can’t build community wealth if it continues to be extracted into the pockets the super-rich. How do we protect community wealth from this?
• A review of energy use, current and projected: how much energy do we really need to generate, why, and how?   Can we reduce demand, and develop decentralised, renewable electricity sources?   Why not solar panels on every roof?   The monopoly utility companies are holding us all to ransom. This simply has to end. The energy, water, telecomms and transport networks need to be under local community ownership.
• Decentralisation, creating an economy and society ‘as if people mattered’ (Schumacher) must surely mean research and investing in growing and processing new crops locally, making products ourselves (eg through 3d printing, perhaps recycling ‘waste’) rather than importing them, stop relying on global investors, 3rd world exploitation, trans-global supply chains, etc.  (Why on earth are we importing venison from New Zealand while the deer destroy the biodiversity of the highlands?) We need specific proposals about reducing the length of supply chains; and making the producers of ‘waste’ legally and financially responsible for it. At present corporate interests simply externalise their costs to the public. They need to take ownership of the whole product and its lifecycle.
• Decentralised economies mean distribution / communication / transport networks under local control.   ’Town and Country Planning’ is still stuck in an urban mindset and 1950s -70s car culture thinking.  In fact everything is still designed around maximising car use, with land ‘zoned’ for different purposes.  The answer is not mass surveillance and draconian restrictions on people’s freedom of movement by trapping them in urban ghettoes (’20 minute neighbourhoods’).   We need a landscape that reflects an interconnected network of smaller, more relatable and personal communities.    Reduce the need to commute, and build local shops and services in the vast, soul-destroying suburbs. Decarbonised, personal transport is perfectly possible.  Post- Covid, and with the internet making it more possible than ever before to live, work and access services directly from rural areas, the ‘city’ is becoming obsolete. Cities are concentrations and stores of power and wealth, based on exploitation of their hinterlands, but with modern technology this separation of people from nature is no longer useful. Let’s offer city folk the chance to reconnect with nature, by building new ecovillages in depopulated areas and creating areas for hutting for those who need to remain in the city. Space could be opened up for gardens, allotments, public parks, football pitches… Instead of the outdated, commuter-based ‘city regions’ we need a network of smaller, empowered, more self-sufficient communities.
• Community wealth building therefore means building local democracy. At present, where I live, democracy is a hollow sham. The voting systems, the local authority and constituency boundaries, the way public resources are allocated by population with little regard for the different circumstances, all need to change.
• As an archaeologist I have been saying for many years that ‘re-wilding’ is a disastrous concept, and profoundly abusive to the indigenous peoples of the highlands who managed a wonderful biodiversity until capitalism arrived in the 18th and 19th c.  There is no such thing as ‘wild’ land in Scotland. Every inch of our landscape has been formed by the interaction of people and biodiversity. As has been said before, much of the highlands are a ‘wet desert’ created by reckless destruction by wealthy industrialists from the 18th century onwards. Read Osgood Mackenzie to see what I mean.  To rebuild our natural abundance we need to start managing our land properly, not leave it empty only to be exploited later. Ban driven grouse shooting, landlords’ rights over deer and fisheries.  Ban fish farming, and certainly ban all large trawlers from our seas.   Let locals manage the local ecosystem and economy through charities and community benefit organisations.
• The creation of ‘nature reserves’ is also something that needs to be re-examined – especially those that destroy local, sustainable, traditional ways of life.  What are reserves really ‘protecting’ nature from?  Nature is an interconnected, single global system.  To select a small part of that system effectively de-selects the rest.  I reminds me of the ‘reservations’ for North American ‘Indians’ which are soon ignored when resources are found there that the wealthy want.  Increasing biodiversity has to be done in a systemic way, and people need to be part of the system everywhere.  
• We need an immediate moratorium on the roll-out of the Internet of Things and other radio frequency (RFR)  technology.  The vast infrastructure being coercively rolled out across Scotland (no criticism or public engagement sees to be permitted) is completely contrary to community wealth building, as it is primarily used to automate jobs, drive economic and social activity online so destroying the social interaction humans need for metal health, carry out mass surveillance, destroy human rights and democracy,  and above all it is disastrous for public health and biodiversity.   All this destroys communities.  It also uses vast amounts of energy, which then requires a massive infrastructure to generate and transport.   Neither the ends nor the means can possibly be justified – and as a ’solution’ to the climate emergency, it is pouring petrol on the flames.
• Finance is also central to community wealth building.  Wealth can only be retained and redistributed  with and between local communities if we have community based banking system.  We need our own local, mutual banks and building societies to finance change and retain wealth in the highland community. Here in the Highlands, HIE could help set these up. They definitely need to be included in the legislation.
• Of course I could go on and on, because pretty much everything needs to change. We need land reform, small business, cooperatives … but we also need to stop making everything worse but disastrous policies such as the so-called ‘Green Freeport’ around the Black Isle. A ‘Green Freeport’ is a contradiction in terms – there is nothing genuinely ‘green’ about it, and it is only ‘free’ to the international super-rich and their corporate friends, who will benefit at the expense of the highlands and indeed the whole of Scotland. Why on earth any rational Scottish Government with an interest in community wealth building could agree to or promote such a monstrous idea is beyond me. The whole idea is an absolute disaster for highland rural communities, especially those of us who are classified as ‘remote rural’. We need proper, local jobs and services, paid for by proper taxation on the wealthiest.

Community Wealth building is a radical concept in the present corporate culture.  I hope this initiative is not just a pretence, a half-hearted attempt to avoid taking any meaningful action while contiunuing with business as usual.